'Til all are Won

[Waspinator]

Late Day 23, Ship, Gaming Lounge, Open

Waspinator was buzzing, more than usual. He had discovered coffee milk had had blown his entire ration on the stuff, and then he had discovered Ninja Gladiator in the games room. He been at it for hours, well into what should have been his defrag cycle. “Wazzpinator Winzz!” three fists pumped the air, “Will any challenge the skillzz of Wazzpinator!?”. Four hands were proving better than two on the controller.

OOC: I’m assuming there is some equivalent to a gaming lounge

[Needlenose]

OOC: Working under the assumption that this takes place before Live At Five/Six.

Of course there's an equivalent to a gaming lounge.

Needlenose set it up!

That same Needlenose that's leaning casually against the frame of the door, arms crossed, optics narrowed and right antenna cocked slightly to the side in a manner that suggests 'cocky smirk' despite Needlenose's lack of a mouth.

"You, my friend, are on."

[Waspinator]

Given the nature of kibble, Waspinator is lying on a couch/berth thingy propped up on his elbows. He grabs a second controller and casually tosses it to Needlenose “Bring it”, <<insert big cheesy grin here>>, he has no desire to annoy this particular ‘con in anyway.

At the character select screen, he picks the sexy ninja chickbot with the ridiculously huge…sword. Yes Waspinator had discovered the joy of playing for the view as well as the win. Let the button smooshing begin.

[Needlenose]

Needlenose catches the controller one-handed as he leaps over the back of the couch, then lands seated on the back with his legs on the cushion in front of him. He chooses a gaudily painted character whose in-game personality is largely just a collection of bad gay stereotypes.

(Much like Needlenose himself. )

"I do hope you're prepared to be obliterated," he answers cheerfully as he waits for the countdown. 3... 2... 1...

Fight!

[Waspinator]

He thought he had the upper hand…for all of five seconds. His character’s lifebar matched his ego, both shrinking fast. At the end of round one, Waspinator’s optics slid over his competitor, he was trying to calculate just how many hidden talents the mayhem had hidden up his gauntlets.

“Right…first time lucky...yeah”. Waspinator prepared himself for round two, he was going to see if he could pull off that really difficult super move he’d been practising.

Good luck Waspinator, you don’t even have Amateur in gaming and Needlenose has like Pinnacle or maybe even Uber Uber Leet. Lets just hope it’s not a flawless victory.

[Needlenose]

OOC: Oh my gosh! I had forgotten that that was part of character sheet! XD

It is not a flawless victory, if so no other reason than because once Needlenose gets a reading on Waspinator's skill level, he starts to back down. Probably because after a certain point, the way to show off the most is by giving pointers and advice (and thus demonstrating the length and breadth of one's Ninja Gladiator knowledge) rather than simply crushing defeat.

"Now, see, Nightbird there is actually a pretty good character," he informs Waspinator, "but her real strength is her speed. Keep her in the air as much as possible and keep her out of corners. Try the spin-thrust combo a bit more often - makes her harder to hit."

[Waspinator]

OOC: Half the reason I checked was the text above your Avatar. Also Slugslinger being a double targetmaster could make this four player.

While Waspinator did as suggested and focused on evasion a bit more, his processor was more focussed on his companion. He had been told a lot of things about the Decepticons while he was in boot camp and certainly plenty of stories outside, he had never expected someone like Needlenose.

Tarantulas, diminutive size aside sort of fit the bill, Slugslinger definitely did but Needlenose, he was really outside the box that said the ‘cons were mean and angry and just not nice. Physically he was the model of a proper ‘con, a high powered flyer and maybe if you got on his bad side, but here the bot was giving him friendly advice about how to be a better gamer. Waspinator could name Autobots that would have rubbed their smug little processors all over the fact of their ‘leetness’. Here was a ‘con that didn’t. Heck, even yesterday’s security interview with the Mayhem had been smooth.

Needlenose was becoming one point in favour of being a ‘con. It’s good to be bad. Waspinator went for the super move after completing another spin thrust combo.

[Needlenose]

Oh, Needlenose is certainly capable of his share of casual cruelty (just ask Swindle, and Springer may soon have a few things to say about that), and he enjoys the occasional murder as much as the next Decepticon, but at the end of the day he's a bit of a punch-card villain. Sure, he'll partake in genocide and do it without remorse, but at the end of the day he's just a gregarious guy with a genuine fascination for alien cultures and normal, every day hobbies like video games and fashion.

In some ways, this may make him more terrible than the likes of Bonecrusher.

The super-move lands, knocking Needlenose's flamboyant character across the screen and taking out a good chunk of his health bar. Unfortunately, the character is back on his feet quickly and diving for the Ninjagirl with a multi-strike combo. "Very good!" he crows, then turns towards Waspinator and adds confidently, "Of course, I'm still going to beat you, but at this rate, we'll whip you into the second greatest Ninja Gladiator on this ship in no time!"

He observes that Waspinator seems to be focusing a fair bit of attention on Needlenose himself and, completely misreading the interest, asks, gesturing to his form, "Like it? I designed it myself! Well, might of had a bit of help in some portions, but you should see the circuit layout!"

Needlenose is a circuit exhibitionist.

[Waspinator]

“Only zircuitzz Wazzpinator wantz to zee laid out izz Chickbotz” Waspinator blurted out before he realised what sort of admission he just made, thankyou coffee milk, and in doing so completely messing up Nightbird’s counter combo and leaving her pixelated aft completely open to abuse from Needlenose.

Waspinator head slumped in embarrassment and resigned defeat, so instead he sought to change both subjects “Want to play Grand Theft Auto Turismo 57?” Waspinator had been a carbot only two days ago but knowing his current luck, the jet would still kick his aft, for all he knew, Needlenose had been a car three days ago.

[Needlenose]

It's been a long, long time since Needlenose was a carbot.

(But he was one once, ages ago. It's just that jets are far more fashionable among the Decepticons!)

Needlenose snorts at Waspinator's protest and mutters quietly, "Philistine," but at the wasp's offer of another game, he perks up. "Sure, why not?"

If Needlenose is feeling generous, he might even let Waspinator... almost not lose.

[Waspinator]

Once his character’s measly animated existence was well and truly put to rest by the superior skills of the competition, Waspinator was only too happy to swap out the fighting game for the car stealing and racing game. Hopefully he’d be able to make better use of the realistic physics.

Once into the video game, he naturally went for the almost garish purple tuner, not the best top speed but very sweet in the handling. A lot like himself.

“So how does one go about dezigning their own body?”

[Needlenose]

Needlenose, on the other hand, goes for something fast, stylish, and with absurdly bad handling. The fact that he's willing to tolerate Zigzag probably demonstrates that he's perfectly willing to sacrifice precision for power at times!

"About the same way you'd go about designing a body for someone else, only when you're done, it's your own brain module that gets transferred into it," he answers cheerfully, then he hesitates. "Wait. Not a brain-module universe. I'm not quite certain if your 'Sparks' are quite as... modular, and from what I know about Blackarachnia, even if it is general-like, it probably isn't for you. We run a bit different even from the start, though... the bit that makes me 'me' is pretty tiny," he holds his right hand up, his fingers just a tiny bit apart. "As long as it stays functional, I can be put into any compatible body and bam! I make a comeback!" Sometimes, remote control cars qualify as 'compatible bodies' (and wouldn't Waspinator have been entertained to find an alternate universe version of Bumblebee running around in a toy car body?).

[Waspinator]

Teeny leetle Bumblebot would definitely make Waspinator’s day, his whole week probably. Teeny leetle Bumblebot in a bird cage? Worth a month easy.

Maybe the fact that Brain modules were so small could explain why most episodes of G1 ran exactly the same as the last and nobody learnt anything that lasted more than 20 minutes. “Wazzpinator hear that when absolutely nezzasary, spark can be placed in new protoform”, he shrugged, it wasn’t something he knew much about, only that protoforms were about as precious as your best friends spark. Just don't tell Swindle.

Being player 1, Waspinator got to select the track. If he had fear of negative repercussions for beating a superior officer then he might have picked one that favoured him less but he didn’t think Needlenose was the sort to take a loss at a videogame personally. So instead he picked a track that offered him the greatest advantage – tight and curvy – much like how he preferred his bunkmates suspension springs. Damn co-ed army with only like two active femmbots, sure he gets one as a room mate but that one already tried to use him twice. And not ‘use’ in a good way. Damn Needlenose mentioning circuit layouts…

[Needlenose]

Ah, but the G1 cartoon had laser cores, not brain modules!

Life was a lot more freeflowing and less regimented in those days, before the fans all got old enough to dissect every single detail given and figure out exactly what doesn't add up.

"We don't have protoforms, either. Well, not like you folks do. There are bodies with fully coded and functioning brain modules and bodies without them! Either the brain module's not been installed, or it's been blown out, or it's not been coded... or sometimes because it's running duplicate code. That's a weird one. You can bring someone back from the dead with a full back-up of their code, but if you try to run that code in a working brain module while the person's still alive? Never works. Usual theory's that the soul's tied to the code somehow, but the whole metaphysical mumbo-jumbo's a bit over my head!"

He tilts his head and hmms faintly at the track. Going to be at a bit of a disadvantage on this one, he realizes. Still, the Mayhem feels fairly confident in his ability to come out ahead, he'll just have to get a bit... aggressive.

[Waspinator]

Thankfully there’s a split screen because Waspinator gonna be watching you closely enough to try protect himself from being a target and making you the target instead, saves having to use the rear view mirror. Both cars are fairly even in acceleration but only up to a point. As soon a the needlespeeder starts to pull ahead, the waspytuner veers hard left fully intending to hit the opposition’s rear fender and send them into a spin, a casually aggressive grin perched upon Waspinator’s visage.

Me thinks Waspinator is feeling too confident in his new Megacool™ body.

“So if bot had backup code and spare body, bot could be functionally immortal, even with warz and getting slagged?” Maybe spare bodies are prohibitively expensive. Else G1 Screamer would have three, just in case.